It's raining birds

I hope that birds falling from the sky and dead fish washing on shore aren't signs that the world is on the brink of destruction. Over the course of the week, dead birds have rained from the sky in Arkansas, Texas, Sweden, New Zealand, London, and now Italy. Fish are also washing up in astonishing numbers and as of this moment, the WWF is not sure what is causing the deaths. I didn't pay much attention to the reports to begin with, but with the numbers increasingly daily, it's becoming harder to ignore. When I was thinking of birds, I remembered that Mom and I had an interesting bird encounter at the beginning of this week. Unlike the blackbirds and doves that have been falling from the sky, our bird was much larger and predatory in nature. It was still mostly dark when we left for work Tuesday morning and as we rounded a curve on Concord Road, Mom put on the brakes to keep from hitting a barn owl that was sitting in the middle of the road. The headlights must have blinded the poor thing, but it didn't even flinch. It stared straight at us and held its ground like it was daring us to try and steal its prey. There was a rather bloody rabbit in the owl's clutches and it must have been too heavy for the bird to fly away with. As Mom edged out of the road to go around the owl, it flapped its wings and started dragging dinner across the road. I have never seen anything quite like that and thought that it was a neat way to start the work week. With any luck, this work week will start with an excused snow day. Bring on that five to seven inches of snow!